


the whole world is a blur, but you are standing

by iovewords



Series: Spideychelle Music Shuffle [4]
Category: Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Books, F/M, Family Fluff, Fluff, Friendship, Kid Michelle Jones, Kid Peter Parker, Light Angst, Little Free Libraries, Minor Injuries
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-30
Updated: 2020-09-30
Packaged: 2021-03-07 18:41:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,553
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26722333
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iovewords/pseuds/iovewords
Summary: The summer when Peter turns nine, his uncle builds a Little Free Library for their Forest Hills neighborhood.Or: Two young bookworms meet in an unusual way.
Relationships: Ben Parker & Peter Parker, May Parker (Spider-Man) & Peter Parker, Michelle Jones & Ned Leeds & Peter Parker, Michelle Jones & Peter Parker, Michelle Jones/Peter Parker
Series: Spideychelle Music Shuffle [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1928152
Comments: 22
Kudos: 51
Collections: The Spideychelle Shuffle





	the whole world is a blur, but you are standing

**Author's Note:**

  * For [spideysmjs](https://archiveofourown.org/users/spideysmjs/gifts).



> For the Spideychelle Shuffle Game: Hoppípolla by Sigur Rós
> 
> (English translation):  
>  _Smiling  
>  Spinning 'round and 'round  
> Holding hands  
> The whole world a blur  
> But you are standing_

The summer when Peter turns nine, his uncle builds a Little Free Library for their Forest Hills neighborhood.

Technically they build it together, but Ben does most of the grown up work, using the table saw and power drill to cut the plywood and screw the pieces together, while Peter helps by handing him materials. “I’ll teach you when you’re older,” Ben tells him, as Peter watches him cut the wood, standing back several feet away and wearing his own safety goggles. “If you lose a finger, your aunt will kill me.”

Peter bobs his head in understanding. Uncle Ben is a handyman, which means he fixes stuff in people’s homes. He’s also built things in the Parker’s house, like Peter’s desk and Aunt May’s raised flower beds. Peter thinks handyman is a fitting name, because Ben’s hands are big and strong for lifting Peter onto his shoulders and holding onto him in bustling crowds.

“I still want you paying attention, bud,” Ben says around the pencil between his teeth as he stretches the yellow tape measure. “You ever heard the phrase, _measure twice, cut once_?”

“No,” Peter says. “Does it mean to be careful?”

Uncle Ben marks the spot he’s measured with the pencil. “Sort of. In carpentry it means to double check your measurements for accuracy before cutting the wood. If you get it wrong, you’ll have to get new wood, taking you more time and money to do it over again.”

To demonstrate, he picks up the graph paper pad with his notes and sketches and reads over the measurement for the back panel. Then he takes the tape measure to check again. “There we go.” He snaps it closed and turns to his nephew. “It’s a good lesson to apply to everyday life. Plan carefully and prepare before you take action, and you’ll make less mistakes.”

“But what if I do make mistakes?” Peter asks.

“Well then, you do your best to correct them and learn from them.”

Peter thinks about Aunt May’s handmade ceramic bowl which he dropped and broke the other day. He tripped over a snag in the kitchen rug as he was carrying it to the sink. He held back wobbly tears as the three of them knelt down to pick up the pieces and swept the smallest shards into the dustbin. “Sorry,” he had mumbled to May, unable to look her in the eye. She made it in college when she studied pottery, and he just went and smashed it because he was a klutz. “Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry-”

“Honey, it’s okay,” Aunt May had assured him, squeezing his shoulder. “Accidents happen.”

But her acceptance of his apology didn’t bring the bowl back. They still had to throw it away.

Uncle Ben seems to read Peter’s mind, knowing he’s still feeling guilty. “There’s gonna be times when you can’t fix what you did wrong. You’re gonna make big mistakes. You’re gonna hurt someone badly. And they may not always forgive you. But what you can always do is try your best to make it up to them and use the opportunity to learn and grow. You can’t undo the past but you can always do better in the future.”

Peter can only nod.

The project becomes more fun when Peter is allowed to help with the painting. He chooses the colors: cherry red for the walls, and bright blue for the roof and door. He’s feeling very proud of himself until he accidentally presses a red handprint onto the roof. Uncle Ben chuckles at this, then coats his own hand in paint and adds his print beside Peter’s.

“Now here’s the other thing about mistakes,” Ben says, carefully wiping sweat from his brow with his forearm so he doesn’t get paint on his face (Peter has red and blue splotches all over his cheeks and nose, and May evilly took a picture to embarrass him when he becomes a teenager). “Improvisation! See, we could just add a new coat to cover it, but I think the hands make it more interesting, don’t you?” After they invite May to add her handprint and let the paint completely dry, Ben digs a hole in the front yard and mounts their little library onto a wooden post.

Now is the best part. Peter runs inside to get his selection of books to donate. It was hard choosing because he loves them so much and doesn’t have a lot, but he’s excited to share them with other kids. And he’ll get to read new books! He loves going to the Queens Library with May and browsing the huge children’s section, but now he’ll have his very own library right outside their front door.

Maybe he’ll even make a friend. He really, really hopes so. There’s not a lot of kids on their street, but occasionally families come through walking dogs and riding bikes, so maybe he’ll “run” into someone.

Peter does a stakeout from the living room, peering through the window facing the street, and ducking down onto the couch cushions like a sneaky spy if anyone glances over. Several people walking by stop to take a look at the library, and one of them even opens the door, but of course he only picks up the adult books that May and Ben added. The man leaves with _Trinity_ , and Peter excitedly lets May know the second she comes home from work.

No kids come by though. Peter huffs loudly and Uncle Ben ruffles his hair playfully. “Patience, young padawan.”

A week passes, and Peter gives up on his stakeout, keeping himself busy rereading the _Percy Jackson_ series, playing with legos, and taking apart an ancient camcorder he found in the attic. Twice a day he checks the library to see if any of the books have been taken or replaced. Someone’s taken Ben’s extra copy of _The Two Towers_ and someone else left a cookbook. “Hey, you could definitely use that,” Ben jokes to May, and without hesitating she snarks back, “To what? Throw at your head?” Peter giggles.

Then one day Peter finds one of his books, _Matilda_ , is gone. “Someone took _Matilda_!” he announces, banging through the front door and skidding to a stop in front of the staircase where May is halfway up carrying a laundry basket.

“That’s great!” May says, beaming at him, then her smile drops when he doesn’t return it. “Isn’t that the whole point?”

“Yeah,” Peter says, mournfully. “But I didn’t see who it was. I wanted to meet them.”

“Well, maybe next time!” May says, encouragingly. “You’ve got one visitor now, maybe they’ll come again.”

The visitor (or visitors?) does come again, but always when Peter isn’t looking outside. With the exception of weekend days when his aunt and uncle take him to parks and museums, Peter spends most of his time in the house. He considers surveilling the yard again, but May puts a firm stop to his plan: “Don’t be creepy.”

Their visitor follows the spirit of Little Free Libraries faithfully. Everytime they take a book, they leave one in its place, and Peter is delighted to bring them inside and dive in immediately, lounging on the couch or on his bed. He stays up late reading with a flashlight under the covers (even though there’s no school, he still has a 9 o’clock bedtime and staying up late makes him feel like a rebel). He wonders if his fellow bookworm is doing the same in another house on another street.

Peter starts leaving notes with messages like _thank you for visiting :)_ and _this is one of my favorites_ and _what’s your name?_ He sticks them between the pages. They never answer his questions, but he gets some replies in the form of drawings of characters from the books, like Charlotte the Spider and Mrs. Which. His visitor is a good artist. He wishes so much he could meet them.

One morning Peter awakens early from a nightmare. He used to dream about the plane crash that killed his parents, but now his bad dreams are about odd things like getting chased by men made of sand or getting stuck in a giant snow globe. It’s still unsettling, so he lays still, heart thudding in his chest, and stares at off color spots on his ceiling, listening to birds singing outside. He glances sideways at the clock radio on his nightstand. It’s barely six.

Something finally prompts him to look outside. He has a perfect view of the street, and therefore, the little free library in the yard. Peter rolls out of bed and makes his way to the window. There’s a figure standing on the sidewalk in front of the library post, reaching inside.

“Aha!” Peter says under his breath. Excitedly, he pushes open his window and climbs out, dangling his feet over the edge and scooching until he’s reaching a hand onto the drainpipe. He’s preparing to slide down like a firefighter, when he loses his footing, and then he’s falling and yelling, a swooping feeling in his stomach.

Peter lands with sudden thud on his back in the dewy grass, and sharp pain shoots through his left arm. For a moment, all he can do is lay there, dazed, staring up at the sky. Then a face curtained by long curly hair fills his vision.

“Are you an idiot?” the girl demands. Her face is a funny combination of concern and judgment. Peter has to agree with her.

“Ow,” he says, making a movement to sit up as the girl gasps, eyes wide.

“Stop dummy! What are you doing? You might have a concussion!”

“I don’t have a concussion,” Peter replies sullenly, as she crosses her arms and glances around, as if hoping an adult that can help will suddenly materialize. “My head is fine.” And it is- it’s just his arm that’s hurting. He hopes it isn’t broken.

“Are you sure about that? Because your head must have already been messed up for you to climb out a second story window!”

“I was going to see who you were,” Peter explains, and now that he’s saying it aloud he feels embarrassed, cheeks turning warm.

The girl raises an eyebrow. “Why? Do you have a problem with me taking books?” She points in the direction of the library post. “It says _free_ ,” she says referring to the official LFL plaque Ben had screwed onto the front above the door.

“I know,” Peter says, cradling his injured arm to his chest. “I just… wanted to meet you.”

The girl blinks. “Oh.”

Just then Ben comes charging out the front door in a t-shirt and boxers with May following close behind in her robe. “Peter!” His yelling must have woken them up. The girl freezes where she’s crouched beside him.

Uncle Ben kneels down and puts a hand behind Peter’s back and slowly helps him sit up all the way. “Are you okay, kiddo?”

“Yeah. My arm hurts though.”

Ben examines Peter’s arm carefully, wincing in sympathy as Peter lets out a whimper of pain. “Shit.” He turns his head at Aunt May, who’s standing a few feet back, face pinched in worry. “Think it might be broken. We’d better take him in to get it looked at.”

His uncle then turns his attention to the girl. “Who are you?”

She startles, shy now that a grown up is directly addressing her. “Um, Michelle.”

“What are you doing here so early in the morning?”

“I… I was getting a book.” Peter realizes now she’s clutching one in her hands. _Stargirl._

Uncle Ben looks at Peter then back at her, then up at Peter’s open window. Peter groans inwardly as his uncle connects the dots.

“Oh I see.”

The plan is for Ben to drive Peter to the local urgent care while May takes Michelle back to her house, but Michelle insists on coming, her bold attitude returned.

Aunt May is hesitant about the idea of bringing along a stranger’s child without their permission. “I don’t want your parents to worry.”

Michelle shrugs. “My mom works night shifts so she won’t be home for a few more hours and my dad sleeps like the dead. Neither of them will even know I’m gone.”

“Well, I’d still feel better letting them know…”

“Please can I come! I’m the one who saw him fall. I’m the key witness.”

May relents. “Okay. What’s your mom’s cell phone number?”

Ben goes back inside to put on pants and Peter wants to change out of his pajamas but May tells him no, worrying he’ll hurt his arm further. Peter looks down self consciously at his _Transformers_ themed ensemble and sighs. The back of his neck burns in embarrassment as Michelle waits beside him, fingers tapping rhythmically on the book in her hands. He stares straight ahead, feeling the weight of her gaze on him. He hopes she isn’t coming because she wants to make fun of him.

When Ben comes back out, May quickly runs in to throw on her clothes and grab her purse. After they’re all ready to go, they pile into Ben’s beat up Honda and take off.

The doctor confirms a fracture in Peter’s forearm.

“Feh!” Uncle Ben says annoyed.

“Feh!” Peter echos.

They walk back to the waiting room to find Michelle and Aunt May in an animated discussion about female characters.

“I want to write a story about a girl who looks like me,” Michelle is saying. “She would live in the ocean and have magic powers and a pet kraken.”

Aunt May nods encouragingly. “That sounds exciting! Maybe you could illustrate it too?”

“Yeah!” Michelle grins at this suggestion. Then she spots Peter and his sling. “Ooh. So you did break it.”

“Yeah,” Peter says, glumly. This is going to put a real damper on his summer. Not that he had many exciting plans as an eight-and-three-quarters year old, but still.

“I’m sorry, sweetie,” Aunt May says.

“Can I see the x-ray?” MJ asks eagerly, and the adults look at her, half puzzled, half amused.

“Maybe later,” Ben says, kindly. He pulls a sharpie out of his pocket. He’s always carrying them around. “But let’s take care of those autographs, shall we?”

They let Michelle sign Peter’s cast first. She writes an _M_ , then pauses. Then she writes a _J_.

MJ.

“I thought your name was Michelle?” Peter asks as she caps the marker and hands it to Aunt May.

“It is. But my friends call me MJ,” Michelle- MJ says. She bites her lip, looking at him shyly.

“So we’re friends?” Peter asks, feeling hopeful.

“Yeah! If you want to be. You did fall out of a window trying to meet me.”

Everyone laughs as Peter’s ears turn red.

On the drive back, Aunt May texts with MJ’s mom, then chats with her on the phone.

“Yes, we’re heading back now, we’ll drop her off…. Uh huh. Yeah. Yeah, he’s okay, he’s a tough cookie… Okay.” Aunt May twists in the passenger seat to hand her phone to MJ. “Your mom wants to talk to you.”

“Hi Mom,” MJ says, taking the phone and holding it to her ear. “No… yeah. I was getting a book from their library…. Because I woke up early!” She huffs loudly. “ _Fine_.”

Her sleepy-looking dad is waiting on their driveway (they live one street over) when the car pulls up in front. MJ unbuckles her seatbelt and helps Peter with his, carefully minding his sling. Peter feels a thrilled swoop in his stomach. He has a friend!

While the adults shake hands and make small talk, Peter and MJ stand across from each other, bouncing on their heels with nervous, childish energy about the excitement of the morning. Peter carefully slips his arm out of the sling to examine the signatures on his cast.

“You wrote kind of small,” he observes.

“I was making room for your other friends.”

“Oh. Yeah well. The thing is... I don’t really have any other friends.”

“Oh,” MJ says, blinking. “Well… I don’t have any other friends either.”

“That’s okay. We’re friends now.”

They smile at each other. Then MJ nods at his cast, “So then what are you going to do with all the empty space?”

“Maybe you could draw stuff? I like your drawings. That’s all been you, right?” He glances over at the little free library.

“Yeah that was me.”

Peter goes over to Uncle Ben and puts on his best polite grown up voice. “Sorry to interrupt but can we please borrow the Sharpie again?” Ben pulls it out of his pocket and hands it over.

MJ and Peter plop down on the ground and she starts her doodles. She makes plants and animals and sea monsters and eyes and more characters from their books.

“Do Charlotte,” Peter requests, and she draws a big spider on a web next to Aunt May’s signature. It’s perfect.

* * *

From then on Peter and MJ become fast friends. They spend lazy summer days reading, playing pretend, and watching cartoons. Sometimes they go to the park, but Peter is only allowed on half of the playground equipment. Swings, monkey bars and climbing walls are all off limits, which is disappointing because Peter loves climbing. “If you break your other arm I’m grounding you till you’re 30,” Aunt May warns him.

They end up in the same third grade class, which is great because MJ is new (her family moved in a few months ago) so they stick together like peas in a pod. Soon their duo becomes a trio when Peter befriends a boy named Ned. They bond over their love for legos and _Star Wars_ , then MJ and Ned bond over having large families.

And the three of them share a love for books.

* * *

_Eight years later_

Peter lands on the wall outside his bedroom window and slides it open, climbing inside.

Ned is lazily spinning back and forth in Peter’s computer chair while MJ lounges on her stomach on the floor with her sketch pad in front of her. They’re passing a bag of salt and vinegar chips back and forth.

“Welcome back, nerd,” MJ says without looking up.

“Anything fun happen?” Ned asks, putting a foot down to halt his spinning.

“Nah, it was boring,” Peter says, but MJ’s eagle eye notices a torn bloody scratch on his upper arm.

“What about that?”

“Caught it on a rusted metal bar at a construction site. No biggie.”

“Hope you got your tetanus shot,” MJ says deadpan.

“I don’t need shots anymore,” Peter reminds her and strips off his suit. He notices out of the corner of his eye that she stiffens, then stares down at her sketch pad. He doesn’t think anything of it.

He heads into his bathroom to get his first aid kit and clean up the scratch. When he comes back, he finds Ned and MJ snickering and grinning at him in shared amusement.

“What?” Peter asks, looking around for a t-shirt on the floor that passes the sniff test. Aha.

“I just realized today marks exactly eight years since we met,” MJ says smirking as he pulls on the graphic tee. “Great memories.”

“Ah yes,” Peter says sarcastically. “So great. Me falling out a window and violently breaking my arm. You calling me an idiot.”

“Well you were. And still are.”

“But it’s kinda funny, isn’t it?” Ned says. “You met her climbing out of your window, and now here you are climbing back in with your weird freaky powers.”

“Thanks, Ned.”

“But because your dumbass fell that fateful day, we’re all the best of friends.” Ned wipes a fake tear from his eye, melodramatic but simultaneously genuine.

Peter agrees with the sentiment, but there’s a small part of him that wishes he could be more than friends with MJ. It’s a realization he’s come to fairly recently, that looking at her sometimes makes him feel like his brain is full of pop rocks. It doesn’t really make sense, so he pushes his feelings deep down. Not away, but down. Maybe when he’s older and less stupid he’ll figure them out.

“Sap,” MJ says, but she’s smiling affectionately.

To be more accurate, their friendship is also thanks to Uncle Ben and his help building the little free library. It’s still there in the front yard, and Peter and May maintain it together. Ben never got the chance to teach him about wood repair, but Peter keeps it otherwise neat and gives it fresh coats of paint when it becomes dull and weathered. New neighbors have come and gone, and now more children use the library. MJ occasionally brings secondhand books she buys with her own money that center on kids of color. Maybe someday she’ll add her own book when she’s a published author and illustrator. He thinks she’d be great. She’d be great at anything.

Peter loves his friends, and Aunt May, and the family he’s lost but still carries in his heart. He thinks that if he were a literary character, he’d still be in the early chapters. He doesn’t know how his story will end, especially with the weird and chaotic superhero life he leads, but he hopes whatever happens, it’s a good one.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Little Free Libraries are awesome and a great way to meet people in your community and help inspire young readers.
> 
> iovewords on tumblr


End file.
